Layers of Fear Movie Timeline
The Movie Timeline of [[Layers of Fear|'Layers of Fear']]' '''and' Layers of Fear: The Inheritance was began the disclaimer for the following was began the story of '''The Painter, The Wife '''and '''The Daughter from the 1910s to 1920s and the The painter's daughter as the adulthood coming back to her childhood home to face her past in the 1960s This is a very, very long post. Also keep in mind this has been put together from evidence from the game (both from the main and Inheritance), as well as my own speculation. For the sake of setting the stage, let’s begin with a possible year the entire story begins. The Painter was name is Abraham "Abram" G. Bennings 'and his Wife '''Melanie Adelaide Baker '''were married on Saturday, June 9th, which is the first date we’re given. No year included, of course. However, you can speculate what year it ''might be based on several factors. One, there is a receipt found in the bathroom at the start of the game, which reveals the Painter has a prosthetic leg. In the upper right hand corner you see what appears to be a date, which has been smudged a little, but the first two numbers are left. “19__”. Therefore, the game at the very least takes place after 1900. Granted, there are a number of items in the game that would be too modern for the time period this story appears to be set in (the air fresheners are the biggest example). If we remove the outliers from this equation, the likely explanation is the marriage took place sometime between 1900 and 1920, if we take the house and fashion style of the couple as further indicators. There are three years in which June 9th falls on a Saturday during that time: 1900, 1906, and 1917. The latter is most likely, based on the Painter’s war history and the year you can find on one of his medals. Since the year is intentionally left vague, I will continue this timeline without said years attached and go by basic calendar years starting with their marriage, and go from there. However, if you find it easier to follow a timeline with an actual year attached, I will put the speculated year, starting with 1917, to go off of next to each year title. List of the Year '''YEAR 1 (1917) * The Painter and his Wife are a couple who become engaged. * After said engagment, the Painter hosts a successful exhibit of his latest paintings, and brings his then fiancée along with him to the gallery opening. His works are highly praised in the newspaper article entitled, “An Artist’s Triumph.” * Saturday, June 9th:' '''The couple gets married. We do not know how long the two of them had known each other before getting engaged, nor do we know the amount of time between the engagement and the marriage. However, we might get a little clue based on a note the Wife writes to her unborn daughter. * The very end of this newspaper clipping says ''“Looking stunning in her black gown, scratched off revealed to us exclusively that the couple are indeed expecting.” This tells us that the Wife was pregnant before the couple was married. Sometime between the art gallery opening and the birth of their daughter, the Wife writes a letter dedicated to her child: * She says here that “a year ago, all I had was talent and ambition.” This was likely written around or after the wedding, and so the Wife probably met the Painter sometime in mid-to-late 1916. * It is worthy to note that along with the Painter’s profitable career at this point, the Wife is experiencing the same with her musical performances. She mentions selling out shows, which ties into another newspaper clipping called, “The New Face of Music - A Night at the Opera becomes a Night to Remember.” * Sometime during her pregnancy, the Wife tells her husband they should get a cat so their child would have someone to play with. The Painter goes out and instead comes back with a dog; a doberman named Popiel. Why he does this instead of adhere to his Wife’s request is a mystery. Perhaps he just hates them. Nonetheless, over the years it seems as though the dog was never properly trained, as it often barks and disrupts the Painter’s work. * Months after their marriage in June, the daughter is born. The note below was written by the Wife, most likely within the first week. What is most interesting here is the date on the note. Most notes in the game are not given a date whatsoever, so we must pay attention when they are. Thus, the daughter was born in November. * The daughter name is Lilith "Lily" Baker Bennings born on November 1917. * Here we see the Wife’s obvious signs of Post-Partum Depression. The Painter writes to his friend and agent, Thomas Caldwell, about all of this and what he should do. He receives the following response: * Despite a rough patch of depression following the birth of their child, this year is a good one for the couple and their newborn daughter. YEAR 2-4 (1918-1920) * These are the family’s happy years. We don’t have a great deal of specifics for this time in-between major events of the story. There are some notes that indicate things were going well, though, such as the following: * This is not to say that everything was perfect. But for this period of time, for the most part, things were generally going well. * In YEAR 4’s November, we get another indication of happiness. When you pick up the first birthday cake in Inheritance, you can see it is nicely designed, with three candles on the top. This shows us the daughter is turning three. The Painter and the Wife nicely sing Happy Birthday to her together. YEAR 5 (1921) * Some problems begin to surface between the couple. While the issues have not reached extreme levels yet, the Painter’s obsessive work ethic becomes more prominent, and the wife has grown fed up with it: Despite the focus on his work, the Painter attempts to make amends with his Wife. This has likely been happening for a while, but not to the extent that it’s been shown here. After all, in the post-partum note, we read that the wife just sees a man who is obsessed with his paintings. Perhaps in the past, the Painter was able to balance between work and family, and now the work is starting to win. Which probably lead to a cycle that revolved around his obsession with work, followed by finally taking time out so the couple could make up. But over time, the promises are broken in favor of painting. Situations such as this probably have happened more than the one instance displayed in the following note: Not only that, but the Painter’s relationship with his daughter starts to strain. This is illustrated in a letter he writes to his Wife, apologizing for being so stern with their child (likely over her art skills): This would be around the time I suspect the Painter’s schizophrenia has begun to manifest. Since the Wife mentions he was “not well” in a previous note, and his obsessive focus on art, this is likely hinting that his mental illness is beginning to show clearly. You can find another note that appears to be filled out for him in the Wife’s handwriting. This style of printed handwriting is also used in the letter written to her unborn daughter. Thus this was filled out before her accident, as it’s not squiggly enough to be post-fire: YEAR 6 (1922) * YEAR 6 brings about the pivotal event that escalated everything and changed the family forever: The fire that burned the Wife’s body and left her permanently scarred. Doctors at the local hospital call the Painter right after the accident, and he rushes over, very upset at what has happened to her. But when did the accident specifically take place during this year? We can find out more from the first note she writes after the accident: As the note reads: “March 23. It’s been a while. It took me six months to be able to hold a pen again.” Another note with a date, therefore important. If we trace back six months from March 23, that means that in mid-to-late September of YEAR 6, the wife had the accident. * Sometime in this year or the next was probably when the Painter started to lose favor for his work, either due to his worsening mental illness, or the accident that befell the Wife. The loss of critical acclaim makes the Painter all the more eager to change public opinion around, which entails spending more time in his workshop, and hiding himself away for longer periods of time. This November, the daughter turns 5 years old. This is significant, as there are two instances from the game in which this birthday is referenced. To begin, there is a Whispered Words item in form of a party hat worn by a teddy bear. When you pick it up, you hear the Painter’s voice say, * “…yawn…Hey, what is that? Wait…what day is it? …It’s Sunday?! You mean I…ahh…well, why didn’t you come and get me? Goddammit! You know how I get when I’m caught up in my work!” Further inspection of the item shows you this: Therefore, the Painter had worked through the morning hours of his daughter’s birthday and not realized it until leaving the workshop and discovering what was likely party decor around the house. Why couldn’t he have worked through the entire birthday, you ask? Because we have two options for how the rest of that birthday went, thanks to Inheritance. The second cake you pick up in the shelf-sequence reveals colored pencils being used as candles, and this time, there are five of them. Hence, there was a bit more happening on her fifth birthday party than the above If you go the Father route, the rest of the birthday is quite different. I would say in this route, he turns it all around to make up for working through the first half of his daughter’s special day. * Painter: “Honey…you have to come out! She’s waiting for us! Don’t make me do this by myself!” * Wife: “No! I don’t want her to see me like this. I’m…I’m sorry I just…I can’t.” No matter the choice, the daughter didn’t exactly have the best party that day. Either she had to deal with a drunk father, or her mother chose to abstain out of self-consciousness due to her scarred visage. YEAR 7 (1923) • This is the year when everything goes to Hell. The Painter has contacted numerous doctors, demanding that they fix what has happened to his wife, with no success: By early March of that year, even the Painter knows things are getting too stressful. After unsuccessful attempts to go to counseling with his Wife in the past, he holds onto the card of a Relationship Counselor named Henry Marvin, and insists they’ll finally go: But it’s clear things did not pan out that way. As we saw earlier, the wife wrote a letter a few weeks later, on March 23, marking the date of her return to writing. The following day, she attempts to play her instruments again, which the Painter has constantly been trying to stop her from doing, so as to not strain herself (per the doctor’s orders). However, she notices by smelling his breath that he has been drinking, and claims,“not this AGAIN.” The use of “again” tells us the Painter had an issue with alcohol in the past, though when, for how long, and how bad, is unknown. Perhaps it was a coping mechanism before, and has resurfaced due to the immense amount of stress that has been placed on the family since the fire. What is important to note here is that half the mementos in the main game are actually the Wife’s dated letters, written after she was burned. They are given specific dates for a reason: all of them happen in the same year. The years leading up to this one may have also been difficult, but this is the time when everything plummets to the point of no return. Therefore, the Wife lasted one year after being scarred before taking her own life. * April 6th. The Wife comes across a stash of empty liquor bottles that belong to her husband. She loses her cool, and is still furious with him after the fact: These harsh reactions were probably not limited to this one instance. Fights are now breaking out between the Painter and his Wife. It might have started out once in a while, but at some point the yelling back and forth grew consistent enough for their neighbors to send a letter, asking for peace and quiet during the night: * May 23rd. The Wife is baffled by how far and fast her marriage has deteriorated. The couple have reached a point where they barely speak to one another now (probably due to the noise complaint, and you can’t help but wonder if the Painter thinks conversation will lead to another loud fight after how she reacted to his bottles). The Wife is hurt by this, and the sad look he gives her one day breaks her down. She makes the conscious decision to act hateful and monstrous to play the part that she believes her husband sees in her. Another thing to take from this is the following line, “He won’t even sleep with me anymore. I can tell he’s disgusted by me.” This implies that only until recently had the couple stopped having sex. Even through their problems of the previous year, they were still sleeping together on a regular basis. What we can presume from this is that the Painter and his Wife stopped having sex after she was burned. This in turn causes her to associate his distant demeanor and attitude to be only about her appearance. From the Painter’s own words in Inheritance, this is not true, but lack of communication and alienation of affection after the fire solidifies this in the Wife’s mind. * June 17th. This brings on the subject of the infamous rats the Painter is obsessed with. The Wife has never seen a single one in the house, but she has begun to hate her husband to the point of wishing they were real so he could be killed by them. Another use of the word “again”, thus he’s brought them up before. Since the rats are not actually real, this implies his schizophrenia has rapidly gotten much worse over the course of the year, as stress is a huge factor in this particular illness. It’s possible these mental issues reflected in his work are what cause the scalding reviews of the Painter’s work to surface again, which drive him further into his studio to create better paintings, at the expense of his family. He writes Thomas Caldwell about the state of things, including that the Wife had burned his old paintings, including one dedicated to her called “The Lady in Black.” Here we see a first glimpse of the growing despair that starts to consume the Painter. Interestingly enough, there is a rat note you can find that implies the Painter may have actually burned his paintings himself, and due to his state of mind, doesn’t realize or remember he committed the act: This delusional thinking is what drives the couple even further apart. Despite the fact that the Wife probably didn’t do it, he believes it’s real. Any denial of said acts would result in the Painter distrusting her more than he already does. He likely sees all this as her way of not supporting his work and efforts to provide. And to an artist, in which every artwork you create contains a piece of you, it stings. * July 19th. The Wife is actually praying to God that the Painter dies every night he passes out, in order for her and the daughter to finally have peace. His failing career and mental illness have become unbearable to his Wife, and his alcoholism may even cause her to fear for her daughter’s wellbeing. Inheritance tells us the Painter would scream at his failed masterpieces and even just out into the night. This letter further expresses the Wife’s jealousy on losing her husband’s affections, as he now chooses to sleep in his workshop instead of their bedroom. * September 12th. This time we read a note from the Painter, who finds utterly hateful reviews from the Wife attached to his paintings. His beginning remark, “She’s been at it again,” suggests he has seen these little notes more than once, but they continue to get worse. It affects him deeply, yet upon confrontation, she denies having written them. It is left unclear whether the Wife actually wrote these notes or not, as we are not shown them for reference. Nonetheless, it drives a deeper wedge between the couple. The Painter’s paranoia continues to grow, and he believes that the Wife, not him, is losing her mind. Of course, it is in fact the opposite. He believes himself sane, and thinks her mind is starting to slip. In this way we see why the Painter refuses to spend more time with her, as he believes she is doing all these horrible things because of her hatred for him. * September 15th. Only a few days later, and the Painter discovers more scathing notes. Yet he agrees with all of them. This could be a hint that he has written them himself without realizing, or he has just fallen so into despair over his passion that his Wife’s scalding words begin to take root within him. Another mystery is the rat the Painter finds in his workshop. Now, the Wife has mentioned not seeing or hearing a single one despite his protests otherwise, suggesting they are all a product of his mind. But this one is clearly real, as he points it out to her and she acknowledges it, though denies involvement. If the rats are all in his head, how does a real one get in the house? Pest control has been called over before and nothing was ever found, so the idea that just one rat happened to wander in is pretty low. This could be a tangible way in which the Wife tried to get back at her husband, but how she managed to find a rat carcass, then, is unknown. Was this incident just a simple occurence that got him paranoid, or was the Wife actually involved? We may never know for sure. Nonetheless, this is the exchange heard between the couple upon picking up the Whispered Words rat: * “You mind explaining this to me? I know what it is! Care to tell me how it got in my workshop? Stop lying! We both know it couldn’t have gotten there on its own!” * There are two undated notes written by the Wife during this year, as shown by their similar scraggly writing. Where they fall precisely is unknown. More evidence that things had taken a turn for the worse. The Painter wasn’t dealing well with his daughter during this time. He would overreact to something involving her, apologize, and then buy her another doll to make up for his mistake. Then the Wife ends up scolding his method of plying her with gifts instead of acting like a proper father figure. And of course there is the classic poem we have all seen in this game. She used the word ‘passion’ twice, but we won’t hold that against her. * October 2nd. The Wife’s suicide note, addressed to her daughter. The Painter also receives one, but the contents of his note from her changes based on how you play the game. Here, the Wife acknowledges what a monster both she and her husband have become, and hopes the daughter will be able to forgive them someday. The impressive thing is, despite all the terrible things that have happened, she still loves (and pities) the Painter and what his mental illness, alcoholism, and stress have reduced him to. This shows just how deep the love they once shared was. Inheritance suggests there might have been a final argument between the couple before the Wife committed suicide. Which argument you see depends on the route taken. If you go the Father route, this becomes the argument instead: * Wife': “I hate you!” * ''Painter: “Good. At least you can still feel something. I look at you and I see nothing! Not the beautiful girl I fell in love with. Not the mother of my child. Not even the * hateful monster you pretend to be. You’re just…empty! I look at you and I feel nothing! And it scares the hell out of me.”'' * ''Wife: “You forgot to say how hideous I am. Go on, I know you want to!”'' * ''Painter: “God, not that again!”'' * ''Wife: “I know you’re disgusted with me, admit it!”'' * ''Painter: “You’re right. I am disgusted with you, but it has nothing to do with the way you look. I’m disgusted with what you let it do to you! How you let it change you!”'' Though no matter the argument, if you end up in the room with a large version of the Mother’s portrait, you hear her say the following: * '“What? Oh, th…that’s all right, honey. Something got into Mommy’s eye, that’s all. You be a good little girl and go to sleep. Daddy’s working, so…we can’t disturb him. Mommy has to go downstairs and take a bath. I love you.” These are the final words between mother and child. Following one of the above final arguments, the Painter returned to his workshop and the Wife ushered the daughter to bed, before going downstairs and slitting her wrists in the bathtub. The Painter finds her body later, desperately needing to go to the bathroom, only to happen upon the most terrible sight he’s ever seen. From this point on, the Painter’s mental state gets even worse. YEAR 8-9 (1924-1925) * For two years following the Wife’s death, the Painter raised the daughter as a single father. How he acted depends on how you play Inheritance, which varies greatly. The knife which the wife used to kill herself becomes a Whispered Words object in Inheritance, and reveals what the Painter was thinking after her death. You can find it hidden in a combination safe during the long study flashback. In the Father route, the Painter takes full responsibility for what he did to his Wife: * “It was my fault. My mistake. I should never forget what I did. What I made her do. I need to hold on to this. Not as penance. Not as punishment. As a reminder.” During this time, the Painter had to go to court in order to obtain custody of his child. Exactly why and how this came about is left vague, though it could be any number of things. Being a new single parent, social services might have wanted to assess him to make sure he was capable. Or the death of the wife and circumstances surrounding it may have given social services reason to inspect and make sure the daughter would be in good hands. Or her school noticed something wrong enough to take notice. In fact, there is a report card belonging to the daughter that can be found in the game: The number at the bottom would suggest her age at the time, which is seven. All of her grades are average, mediocre, or failing - save for music and art, of course. Not to mention, you can see she has been absent or late to school very often over the course of the school year. Would all this be enough for investigation? Possibly. In any event, this becomes a case, and the Painter is reprimanded by his lawyer to keep quiet and stay out of public eye until it’s resolved. He has been showing more and more mental degradation since the death of the Wife, and has been prone to ‘rambling’ and ‘outbursts’ that make him seem completely insane to onlookers. This, naturally, does not endear him to the court. * It’s very likely that Popiel died during this two year period. We see a drawing from Inheritance that suggests that the Painter killed the dog with fire: Why is unclear, but there are several sequences during Inheritance that show the dog running after the daughter/player, and overall suggesting a threatening presence. It is possible the Painter grew extremely protective of his child ever since the Wife died, and thus thought the dog was a threat to her that needed to be neutralized. Since the daughter is shown crying in this drawing, she does not feel the same way. * We are treated to one final cake in Inheritance, one final birthday the Painter was able to celebrate with his daughter before she was taken from him. This happens to be her eighth birthday. We know this because of the number of colored pencils used as candles on this cake. In this scenario, the Painter doesn’t even remember it’s his daughter’s birthday at all. He is so consumed with work that when she tries to get his attention about it, he’s surprised. The paintings win out, and the daughter spends her birthday alone. In the Father route, this is what you hear instead: * ''Painter: “crying Why would you do this? What am I supposed to do now? I can’t do this without you.”'' Here the Painter breaks down, the full weight of being a single parent coming down on his shoulders. The memories of singing Happy Birthday to the daughter with his Wife come back, and everything hurts. Perhaps he managed to hold it together enough to sing for his daughter. In this scenario, we know at the very least, he tried to celebrate her birthday. YEAR 10-??? (1926-???) The Painter loses his case in family court, and the daughter is ruled to be taken away by social services. In the Father route of Inheritance, you enter the room with a large portrait of the Painter, and you listen to him say the following: * “Princess, Princess wake up! I need you to get dressed real quick! There are men coming. Some very bad men. They want to take you away from me, but I won’t let them! We won’t let them, will we?” Ultimately this escape plan is futile, and the daughter is removed from his care (how exactly this happens when he attempts to run off with her is unknown). Nonetheless, this doesn’t stop the Painter from trying to get her back not long after. Despite all his mistakes and degrading mental condition, the Painter breaks into a child’s care center (not to mention breaks the law) in a last-ditch-effort to get his daughter back, who is taken away from him for the second and last time. He cries over and over that she is ‘all he has left’, which is truly heartbreaking. Inheritance shows that the Painter learned who eventually adopted his daughter: Mr. and Mrs. Kirkstein. He begs them to give her back, repeatedly. Given the phrase “I implore you again”, we can assume he has written to this couple numerous times over the years on behalf of his daughter. Eventually the painter falls into further despair, unable to produce the kinds of paintings that were so well received in the past. He mourns the loss of his talent, and believes his Wife’s death had taken it away, and thus he vows to make ‘her’ and ‘it’ right. When you pick up the Whispered Words item in the form of paint brushes, he says: * “sobbing You fucking took it from me! My gift! I want it back, you hear me? I will bring you back! Drag if I have to, I will it make right, honey! I promise, I will make you right!” His voice sounds both upset and unhinged, and this flashback suggests this is what likely drove him to dig up his Wife’s corpse in order to use it as the ingredients in his Magnum Opus. The only thing is, his wife has been dead for over two years at this point, and therefore her body would have been very decayed. Her ghost form in the game is also quite rotted, and might reveal how her cadaver actually appears, if not worse. This is worth noting, because the various ingredients he supposedly takes from her - skin, blood, finger, etcetera - are all shown to be fresh. This would not be possible after such a long time. Then again, using her body at all, and seeing how insane the items for each piece of the painting become as the game continues reveals the Painter’s completely broken state of mind. He might believe it to be fresh, but the bricked up wall in the kitchen stuck with plenty of air fresheners suggests otherwise: This is the pantry, which you may have noticed is also bricked up in the first chapter, right before you get the canvas piece. When you gaze at the door at the right time in the first chapter, the bloody knife used in the Wife’s suicide flies past and sticks in the doorframe. This tells us that the Painter put his Wife’s corpse in there, and the air fresheners are a clear sign that the rotting smell has become unbearable. The years pass, the Painter attempts to create his Magnum Opus, and loses more and more of his rational thought over the years. He even tries sending letters to encyclopedias about his knowledge on rats, claiming what is written in them is just a bunch of lies, revealing just how far gone he is. It’s also worth mentioning that the Painter fell behind on paying off the house, based on a notice of overdue payment found in the Wife ending (also known as the loop ending): Given the state of the Painter’s mind as well as his paintings, it’s unsure whether or not he was able to make the payments, or if the bank came knocking on the door. However, the house was able to remain in the family name until his daughter came to claim her Inheritance. After an undetermined amount of time, the Painter knows he is near the end of his remaining sanity, and writes his final will. He leaves everything he has to his daughter, for what it’s worth. The amount of time between the daughter being taken away and her returning to her childhood home for the Inheritance is not stated. I would say it is most likely about 20 years afterwards, placing the daughter’s age at 28 years. The canon endings to the main game and Inheritance are left up to the player to decide, and therefore the ultimate fate of the Painter and his daughter is based on personal interpretation. Category:Layers of Fear (Movie Version)